One of the last surviving members of the Blasket community has died in the US.
Mike Sheáin Tom Ó Ceárna (Mike Carney) died peacefully in Springfield Massachusetts aged 94.
The islander was the oldest of only seven surviving natives of the Great Blasket.
He was born on the Kerry island in 1920.
He left in 1937 and spent a number of years working in Dublin, before emigrating to the US in 1948 and settling in Hungry Hill, Springfield.
During the 1940s, Mr Ó Ceárna was an activist, personally lobbying Éamon de Valera on behalf of The Great Blasket Island community.
He lost his brother Seáinín in 1947 who developed meningitis and a doctor could not be sent to the island due to a storm.
In part because this, and Mr Ó Ceárna’s persistent efforts, the island was eventually evacuated by the government in 1953 and the remaining islanders were relocated to the mainland.
In the US, he remained passionate about his Irish heritage and devoted thousands of hours to advancing Irish culture and language.
He was a member of the Board of Directors of the John Boyle O'Reilly Club for 24 years and was a vocal advocate for the preservation and promotion of the Blasket's rich heritage, working closely with Fondúireacht an Bhlascaoid (the Blasket Foundation).
In recognition of his multiple contributions to Irish culture, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Celtic Literature by the National University of Ireland, Maynooth in 2010.
More recently, he met with Presidents Mary McAleese and Michael D Higgins to advocate for the preservation of the island.
Mr Ó Ceárna recently published his recollections of a lifetime as a proud Irish-American in the book 'From the Great Blasket to America - the Last Memoir by an Islander'.
